If so, you’re not the only one, with new research revealing that one in three British workers have lied to their boss in order to take time off.
As reported by Human Capital, the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study found that the majority of respondents (61%) said they did so because they felt unmotivated and tired with their job.
The research also revealed that 15% of those who took a day off work felt they’d been working hard and deserved it, whereas 21% "pulled sickies" to deal with "family responsibilities".
Interestingly, hangovers, good weather (you can’t blame the British for wanting to make the most of the sunshine when they get it!) and romance were also named as motivating factors behind calling in sick.
On a more serious note, absenteeism costs UK businesses up to 32 billion pounds ($48.5b) a year and can be crippling for many small companies. However, Neil Roden, HR consulting partner at PwC, believes that a large percentage of absenteeism could actually be prevented.
"Our findings suggest a large chunk of this loss is preventable. If people are bored and depressed with their jobs, employers need to think creatively how they can get people back in gear", he said.
SO WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?
According to Human Capital, the NSW government have published a number of strategies that HR professionals and small businesses can adopt to help reduce absenteeism on their industrial relations website. These include:
- Promote a high performance work culture and emphasise the importance of the employee fitting into this culture
- Provide flexible work practices which meet the needs of your business and your employees
- Promote the use of carer's or domestic leave
- Widen job responsibilities
- Increase promotional opportunities
- Recognise and reward your employees' contribution
- Provide training and development
- Establish an effective means of monitoring annual leave and long service leave data to ensure your employees are taking adequate recreational breaks.
IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT YOU CAN’T MANAGE IT!
By effectively measuring absence and sickness in the workplace, supervisors and managers can easily identify:
- how often a worker is absent
- how much working time has been lost
- if there is any particular pattern forming (i.e. a particular worker regularly calls in sick on a Monday morning)
- and where absenteeism occurs the most (i.e. within a particular department, team)
Armed with this valuable information, management can then assess the extent of their absenteeism issues and decide on the best means of tackling the problem.
For example, if absence is high among a specific team or department there may be an issue with the supervisor/manager, or employees may be subjected to workplace bullying.
HOW CAN A TIME AND ATTENDANCE SYSTEM HELP?
An Employee Time and Attendance system is a powerful tool for analysing and managing employee time and associated costs.
By recording unplanned absences, holidays and other leave (compassionate, parental etc...), a Time and Attendance system builds a complete Employee Absence Profile which can be viewed on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis. While a Group Absence Profile allows you to analyse absence for a specific team, department or site.
By measuring the work absences of individual employees a Time and Attendance system can identify how these absences impact the organisation’s overall productivity, while real-time colour-coded reporting allows supervisors and managers to quickly identify potential problem areas and plan work schedules according to available resources, skills sets etc…
A web based Time and Attendance solution can also facilitate flexi-work patterns and working from home initiatives, enabling employees to record their start and finish times, as well as allocate time to specific jobs/projects regardless of their location.
Employee Self Service functionality also provides staff with the opportunity to check their own Annual Leave balances and request time off (subject to approval) without having to speak directly to their manager or HR department - if they have accumulated enough leave they may be encouraged to book some time off as opposed to “Chucking a Sickie”!
If you’d like to find out more about how an automated Time and Attendance system can reduce your company’s absence rates and boost productivity contact Mitrefinch Employee Management today on 1300 884 831 (Australia) or 09 363 9557 (NZ).
Our Free Guide to Choosing a Time and Attendance system is also available for download online.
